janhq/jan · error · Error

No ID returned from image ingestion

Error message

No ID returned from image ingestion

What it means

After uploading an image for ingestion the code expects the response to include an id, which it writes back into the attachment state. If result.id is missing the upload is treated as failed: the error is thrown, caught, logged, and the in-progress attachment is removed from state.

Solutions

1. Check the ingestion endpoint response body in devtools/network tab and confirm it contains id.
2. Verify the frontend and backend ingestion API contract versions match.
3. Validate the parsed response before consuming it and surface a clearer server error message.
4. Retry the upload; transient gateway issues can return malformed empty bodies.

Example fix

// before
} else {
  throw new Error('No ID returned from image ingestion')
}
// after
} else {
  throw new Error(
    `No ID returned from image ingestion: ${JSON.stringify(result).slice(0, 200)}`
  )
}

const ingestResponse = await res.json()
if (!ingestResponse || typeof ingestResponse.id !== 'string' || !ingestResponse.id) {
  throw new Error(`Image ingestion returned invalid response: ${JSON.stringify(ingestResponse)}`)
}

function hasIngestionId(r: unknown): r is { id: string } {
  return typeof r === 'object' && r !== null && 'id' in r && typeof (r as { id: unknown }).id === 'string'
}

try {
  const result = await ingestImage(file)
  if (!result?.id) throw new Error('No ID returned from image ingestion')
} catch (error) {
  console.error('Failed to ingest image:', error)
  toast.error('Image upload failed. Please try again.')
  setAttachmentsForThread(attachmentsKey, prev => prev.filter(a => !matchImg(a)))
}

When it happens

Trigger: The image ingestion endpoint returns a 2xx response whose JSON body lacks an id field (e.g. older backend, wrong endpoint, error-shaped body with 200 status, or result being undefined after a failed JSON parse).

Common situations: Backend/API version drift where the ingestion response shape changed; a proxy returning an HTML error page with 200; attaching images while pointing the app at a misconfigured or stale server.

Understand the failure class

Background: "invalid response format", "malformed payload", "missing data field": when an API returns 200 but the response shape is wrong — this error's family across 23 libraries.

Related errors

• API request failed with status
• Failed to fetch HuggingFace repository
• Failed to fetch models from
• Failed to fetch releases
• Failed to fetch repository files

AI-assisted analysis of janhq/jan@7205d770c1 (2026-09-17). Data as JSON: /api/errors/5ebce1326fddc237. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at web-app/src/containers/ChatInput.tsx:1384

              const result = await serviceHub
                .uploads()
                .ingestImage(currentThreadId, img)

              if (result?.id) {
                setAttachmentsForThread(attachmentsKey, (prev) =>
                  prev.map((a) =>
                    matchImg(a)
                      ? {
                          ...a,
                          processing: false,
                          processed: true,
                          id: result.id,
                        }
                      : a
                  )
                )
              } else {
                throw new Error('No ID returned from image ingestion')
              }
            } catch (error) {
              console.error('Failed to ingest image:', error)
              setAttachmentsForThread(attachmentsKey, (prev) =>
                prev.filter((a) => !matchImg(a))
              )
              toast.error(`Failed to ingest ${img.name}`, {
                description:
                  error instanceof Error ? error.message : String(error),
              })
            } finally {
              setFileIngestProgress({
                completed: i + 1,
                total: ingestTotal,
              })
            }
          }
        } finally {

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